The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
Psalm 10:4 reaches the inward root of the wicked man described throughout the psalm. He persecutes the poor, boasts of his heart’s desire, blesses the covetous, speaks corruptly, lies in wait for the helpless, and imagines that God will never see or require it (vv.2-11). Verse 4 explains why. Pride governs him, he refuses to seek God, and God is excluded from his thoughts. His wicked actions are not accidental failures around an otherwise Godward life. They proceed from a heart that does not want God ruling it.
“The wicked.” The psalmist speaks of a definite kind of man. Scripture does not describe him as spiritually neutral, misunderstood, or uninformed. He is wicked. His desires, judgments, words, plans, and treatment of others reveal a settled opposition to God. Verse 3 has shown him boasting of his heart’s desire and blessing the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth. God judges more than visible crimes; He examines the heart from which they proceed: “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).
“Through the pride.” Pride is the governing sin in the verse. The wicked man thinks too highly of himself to seek God. He does not want correction, dependence, commandment, judgment, or submission. Pride says, I can rule myself. Scripture joins pride with every departure from God: “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate” (Proverbs 8:13). A proud man may speak politely and appear respectable, but if he will not bow his mind and life to God, his pride is rebellion.
Pride also explains why clear evidence does not produce repentance. The wicked man’s problem is not lack of information. He does not want God. “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). The resistance is moral before it is intellectual. Pride protects sinful desire by excluding the God who would condemn it.
“Of his countenance.” Pride becomes visible. The countenance is the face, the outward expression of the inward man. A proud heart often appears in bearing, manner, look, speech, and reaction to correction. “An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin” (Proverbs 21:4). God sees both the look and the heart beneath it. Nebuchadnezzar walked in pride until God humbled him (Daniel 4:30-37). Men think pride dignified, strong, or independent; God calls it sin.
“Will not seek.” This is deliberate refusal. The wicked man does not fail accidentally to seek God; his will is set against the duty. This is practical atheism. A man may never say aloud that there is no God, yet live as though God were irrelevant. He makes plans without prayer, pursues desires without commandment, handles money without fear, speaks without judgment, and chooses friends without asking what God requires. His life says, I will not seek Him.
Seeking God includes prayer, worship, instruction, obedience, repentance, and desire to know His will. David answered God’s call: “When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek” (Psalm 27:8). The wicked man gives the opposite answer. Nor does religious activity alone prove that a man seeks God. Israel sat before Ezekiel and heard his words, but their heart went after their covetousness (Ezekiel 33:31). Seeking God means wanting His truth, rule, presence, and approval above competing desires.
“God is not in all his thoughts.” God exists, rules, sees, judges, and owns the wicked man, but in his thoughts God is treated as absent. Reality has not changed; the sinner’s mind has. A man can exclude God from his thinking without excluding himself from God’s dominion. “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3). Man’s refusal to think about God does not stop God from judging man.
The corruption is comprehensive. God is not governing his plans, desires, ambitions, fears, business, speech, pleasures, grudges, or future. The phrase does not require that the man never has a passing religious thought. It means God is absent as the ruling consideration. Verse 3 has shown the result in boasting and covetousness, and verse 7 will show his mouth full of cursing, deceit, and fraud. Thought comes before speech and action. A man who excludes God inwardly will reveal it outwardly.
This makes the verse searching even for saints. The wicked man is described by settled exclusion of God, but the saints can still act foolishly when they forget Him in particular decisions. Scripture commands, “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:6). The answer to godless thought is not occasional religious sentiment but continual acknowledgment of God.
The verse also explains why wicked men can appear fearless. The wicked man says in his heart that he shall not be moved and that God has forgotten and will never see (vv.6,11). If God is removed from thought, judgment seems distant and sin appears safe. But this confidence is delusion. The psalm ends with the LORD hearing the desire of the humble, to judge the fatherless and the oppressed (vv.17-18). The God excluded from thought remains the Judge above every thought.
Jesus Christ is the perfect opposite of Psalm 10:4. The Father was always before Him. He sought God continually and could say, “And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29). In Gethsemane His will remained under the Father’s: “Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). No pride ever excluded God from His thoughts.
Examine not only what you do, but whether God governs what you think. “Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established” (Proverbs 16:3). Humble yourself, bring Him into every plan, desire, judgment, and fear, and seek Him where the proud man will not.
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
Psalm 10:4 reaches the inward root of the wicked man described throughout the psalm. He persecutes the poor, boasts of his heart’s desire, blesses the covetous, speaks corruptly, lies in wait for the helpless, and imagines that God will never see or require it (vv.2-11). Verse 4 explains why. Pride governs him, he refuses to seek God, and God is excluded from his thoughts. His wicked actions are not accidental failures around an otherwise Godward life. They proceed from a heart that does not want God ruling it.
“The wicked.” The psalmist speaks of a definite kind of man. Scripture does not describe him as spiritually neutral, misunderstood, or uninformed. He is wicked. His desires, judgments, words, plans, and treatment of others reveal a settled opposition to God. Verse 3 has shown him boasting of his heart’s desire and blessing the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth. God judges more than visible crimes; He examines the heart from which they proceed: “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).
“Through the pride.” Pride is the governing sin in the verse. The wicked man thinks too highly of himself to seek God. He does not want correction, dependence, commandment, judgment, or submission. Pride says, I can rule myself. Scripture joins pride with every departure from God: “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate” (Proverbs 8:13). A proud man may speak politely and appear respectable, but if he will not bow his mind and life to God, his pride is rebellion.
Pride also explains why clear evidence does not produce repentance. The wicked man’s problem is not lack of information. He does not want God. “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). The resistance is moral before it is intellectual. Pride protects sinful desire by excluding the God who would condemn it.
“Of his countenance.” Pride becomes visible. The countenance is the face, the outward expression of the inward man. A proud heart often appears in bearing, manner, look, speech, and reaction to correction. “An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin” (Proverbs 21:4). God sees both the look and the heart beneath it. Nebuchadnezzar walked in pride until God humbled him (Daniel 4:30-37). Men think pride dignified, strong, or independent; God calls it sin.
“Will not seek.” This is deliberate refusal. The wicked man does not fail accidentally to seek God; his will is set against the duty. This is practical atheism. A man may never say aloud that there is no God, yet live as though God were irrelevant. He makes plans without prayer, pursues desires without commandment, handles money without fear, speaks without judgment, and chooses friends without asking what God requires. His life says, I will not seek Him.
Seeking God includes prayer, worship, instruction, obedience, repentance, and desire to know His will. David answered God’s call: “When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek” (Psalm 27:8). The wicked man gives the opposite answer. Nor does religious activity alone prove that a man seeks God. Israel sat before Ezekiel and heard his words, but their heart went after their covetousness (Ezekiel 33:31). Seeking God means wanting His truth, rule, presence, and approval above competing desires.
“God is not in all his thoughts.” God exists, rules, sees, judges, and owns the wicked man, but in his thoughts God is treated as absent. Reality has not changed; the sinner’s mind has. A man can exclude God from his thinking without excluding himself from God’s dominion. “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3). Man’s refusal to think about God does not stop God from judging man.
The corruption is comprehensive. God is not governing his plans, desires, ambitions, fears, business, speech, pleasures, grudges, or future. The phrase does not require that the man never has a passing religious thought. It means God is absent as the ruling consideration. Verse 3 has shown the result in boasting and covetousness, and verse 7 will show his mouth full of cursing, deceit, and fraud. Thought comes before speech and action. A man who excludes God inwardly will reveal it outwardly.
This makes the verse searching even for saints. The wicked man is described by settled exclusion of God, but the saints can still act foolishly when they forget Him in particular decisions. Scripture commands, “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:6). The answer to godless thought is not occasional religious sentiment but continual acknowledgment of God.
The verse also explains why wicked men can appear fearless. The wicked man says in his heart that he shall not be moved and that God has forgotten and will never see (vv.6,11). If God is removed from thought, judgment seems distant and sin appears safe. But this confidence is delusion. The psalm ends with the LORD hearing the desire of the humble, to judge the fatherless and the oppressed (vv.17-18). The God excluded from thought remains the Judge above every thought.
Jesus Christ is the perfect opposite of Psalm 10:4. The Father was always before Him. He sought God continually and could say, “And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29). In Gethsemane His will remained under the Father’s: “Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). No pride ever excluded God from His thoughts.
Examine not only what you do, but whether God governs what you think. “Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established” (Proverbs 16:3). Humble yourself, bring Him into every plan, desire, judgment, and fear, and seek Him where the proud man will not.